Mozart- Violin Sonatas, 1781 (2005)

Mozart

Andrew Manze, Richard Egarr

The violin sonatas recorded here were composed during a pivotal year for Mozart. During a visit to Vienna in May, 1781, Mozart had, according to his version of events, resigned – or more likely was sacked – from his position as court organist and concertmaster to the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg, Hieronymus Colloredo. His father, Leopold, also a Colloredo employee, was none too pleased for many reasons. As a respected servant of the court he was embarrassed by his son’s behaviour and possibly jealous of his new-found freedom. He was especially unhappy that the now homeless Mozart had taken lodgings in Vienna with the Weber family, of which Leopold was endlessly suspicious. Mozart had known the Webers since 1777, when he had fallen in love with their eldest daughter, a coloratura soprano named Aloysia. (Although she turned him down, he went on to compose much wonderful music for Aloysia. In 1780 she married Joseph Lange, the painter who was to leave unfinished one of the most famous, and certainly the most poignant, portraits of Mozart.) With a roof over his head, Mozart could pursue a freelance career in Vienna. Performing, composing and publishing might all further one’s reputation, and Mozart did all three tirelessly, but they did not necessarily generate income. The first performances of Die Entfu?hrung aus dem Serail, for example, were a critical and box-office success but earned the composer himself only one hundred ducats. To put this in perspective, he had been paid fifty ducats by Emperor Joseph II for playing in a competition with Muzio Clementi. (Evidently both the Emperor and Mozart felt the Italian was well beaten: “He doesn’t have a penny’s worth of taste or feeling – he is a mere Mechanicus,” wrote Mozart to his father.) 1 Other high profile concerts, such as for the Wiener Tonku?nstler-Sozietät, a charity that supported the widows and orphans of musicians, raised his profile but no money. And although the list of princes, barons and counts whom Mozart counted amongst his friends and admirers is an impressive one, he was forced to rely primarily on teaching. “I’ve three lady pupils – that brings 18 ducats a month – for I don’t teach [a series of ] 12 lessons any more, but on a monthly basis. – I have learned the hard way that they often skip whole weeks – now, whether they learn or not, each must pay me 6 ducats.”

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Andrew Manze

Andrew Manze is “a violinist with extraordinary flair and improvisatory freedom” (BBC Music Magazine), “the first modern superstar of the baroque violin” (San Francisco Examiner).

As a player, he specializes in repertoire from 1610 to 1830; as a conductor, he is much in demand among both period- and modern-instrument orchestras around the world. He also teaches, edits music, contributes articles to numerous periodicals, and broadcasts regularly on radio and television. He is a presenter on BBC Radio’s new Early Music Show.

A Cambridge Classicist by training, Andrew Manze studied the violin with Simon Standage and Marie Leonhardt. He was Associate Director of The Academy of Ancient Music from 1996 to 2003, and succeeded Trevor Pinnock as Artistic Director of The English Concert in July of that year. He is also Artist-in-residence at the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. In his new role at The English Concert, Andrew will move into Classical repertoire, including Mozart’s violin concertos, orchestral works and reorchestrations of Handel’s oratorios, while continuing to perform baroque repertoire. 2003 saw his debut tour of the UK with The English Concert, a televized concert at the London Proms and a filmed reconstruction of Handel’s Water Music on the River Thames for the BBC. In their first prize-winning recording together, Manze led The English Concert in a dazzling Mozart program, including Eine kleine Nachtmusik (hmu 907280).

Andrew Manze is also active as a guest conductor in large-scale oratorio and symphonic repertoire, with symphony, chamber and period-instrument orchestras in Europe, the US and Australia. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and a Visiting Professor at the Royal College of Music, London; his cadenzas to Mozart’s violin concertos were recently published by Breitkopf & Ha?rtel.

Manze records exclusively for harmonia mundi usa and has released an astonishing variety of CDs. Recordings made with the trio Romanesca (Biber, Schmelzer, Vivaldi), The Academy of Ancient Music (including Bach violin concertos, Geminiani and Handel concerti grossi), and as a soloist (Telemann, Tartini), have garnered many international prizes: the Gramophone, Edison and Cannes Classical Awards, the Premio Internazionale del Disco Antonio Vivaldi and the Diapason d’Or—each of them twice. Since 1984 his collaboration with Richard Egarr has been setting new standards. Their discography includes sonatas by Rebel and Bach (both awarded the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik) and Pandolfi’s complete Violin Sonatas (Gramophone Award, 2000). Their recording of the complete Violin Sonatas of Handel was nominated for a 2003 Grammy ® Award, and figured in the US Billboard ® Chart. Their previous release, Corelli’s Sonatas Op.5, has received unanimous rave reviews, was Gramophone’s Recording of the Month and won the 2003 Prix Caecilia. Their next release will be of Mozart sonatas.

Richard Egarr

Richard Egarr has worked with all types of keyboards: he has performed repertoire ranging from fifteenth-century organ intabulations, to Dussek, Schumann and Chopin on early pianos, to Berg and Maxwell Davies on modern piano. He is director of the Academy of the Begijnhof, Amsterdam, and is in great demand both as soloist and as accompanist for many of today’s finest artists. His collaboration with long-time duo partner Andrew Manze has been setting new performance standards since 1984.

As a conductor, Egarr has presented a wide range of repertoire – from Baroque opera and oratorio, to works by twentieth-century composers such as John Tavener and orchestral transcriptions by Stokowski. Recently named Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music, he appears regularly with this and other ensembles: the Orchestra of the Age of En-lightenment, the Orchestra of the Paris Conservatory, the Dutch Radio Chamber Orchestra, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

Richard Egarr now records exclusively for harmonia mundi usa and has made five recordings of music by

J.S. Bach: the Harpsichord Concertos with Andrew Manze and the Academy of Ancient Music; the Gamba Sonatas with Jaap ter Linden; the Violin Sonatas with Manze and ter Linden; a critically acclaimed recital, “Per cembalo solo...” (Gramophone Editor’s Choice); and the Goldberg Variations, hailed as “a spectacular disc” by the London Times. His most recent solo recording is devoted to Mozart Fantasias and Rondos, performed on an 1805 fortepiano. Egarr’s recordings with Andrew Manze also include the violin sonatas of J.F. Rebel, Pandolfi (Gramophone Award, 2000), Handel (Billboard ® Top Classical Album), Corelli (Gramophone Recording of the Month; the Prix Caecilia, 2003), Biber’s Rosary Sonatas (Edison Award, 2005), and Mozart’s Violin Sonatas, dubbed “the most stimulating